Fishing
by Yemi Hikari
Summary: Traditions are traditions, even if they are, to say the least... rather on the odd side of things... but are they really? And can they continue even when people are seperated from each other?


_Disclaimer – I do not own Bleach._

* * *

**Fishing**

When Toshiro came into the office that morning, he found himself surprised to see Matsumoto actually working for once, instead of the third seat trying to push her work onto her superior. This caused him a little bit of concern, but he thought nothing of it, and let out a content sigh, getting started on his own work. He reached out and popped his knuckles to relieve a small amount of stress.

However, this was interrupted by Ichimaru Gin dropping some sort of poles off by the door way, which made a clanking sound The older male then went to go and sit on Matsumoto's desk. "Good morning Ran-chan. You're up exceptionally early this morning."

The small white haired taicho couldn't help but roll his eyes at Gin's flirtatious behavior. "Please Ichimaru… if you wish to speak with our third seat, I would appreciate it if you could wait until after office hours."

"It's early… not even normal hours yet," Gin sighed. "I thought we would be having to get you up, but apparently not."

"Isshin and I told you he would be up," Matsumoto stated, getting up and snatching away Toshiro's paperwork. "And Gin-kun isn't here to take me away from my work. I am under orders by taicho to do all of the work so that you, Gin and he can go out today."

"Whatever for?" Toshiro narrowed his eyes. "I don't see what the big deal is."

"It's Sunday, and in the month of June," Gin stated. "So…"

"That date in June…" This caused the small boy's eye to suddenly twitch. "That day! Hell no! I am not participating in any tom foolery that the two of you planned."

"It is rather hard for us to go without the son there," Isshin piped up, sticking his head around the door. "It would look just like a friendship and make no sense why we were doing it."

"Good riddance," Toshiro narrowed his eyes even more.

"I haven't a clue what today is, but if you don't go… taicho is going to be on your case and think of multiple ways to embarrass you… and you need to get out every so often," Matsumoto sighed. "Plus… we could use whatever fish you catch for division meals…"

"Fishing…" Toshiro gave the two men a skeptical look, and then folded his arms. "Do the two of you know anything about fishing?"

"Nope," Isshin chuckled as he grabbed onto Toshiro's robes and hauled him out of the room, without much of a protest, but definitely with a glare on the small face.

**M**

The threesome set up in one of the forested areas, where a dock was located. Toshiro folded his arms and didn't want to do anything, however, Isshin insisted on handing him a pole… one that was to long for him. Toshiro turned it over in his hands, and when the two men weren't looking, they heard a cracking sound, which caused them to turn and give him a completely shocked look.

"What?" Toshiro narrowed his eyes. "You didn't expect for me to use a pole as long as yours?"

"I got those on loan from Ukitake…" Isshin muttered, pointing his finger.

"Then take it out of my pay baka," Toshiro grumbled.

"I defiantly will," Isshin muttered rather coldly, watching the young fukutaicho string and bate his own rod.

"It was your idea to do something on father's day," Toshiro stated. "Both of yours."

"But papa wanted to do something fun with Shiro-chan," Isshin protested.

"Lieutenant Hitsugaya to you, unless you can act like an adult," Toshiro muttered.

"My, my… says the one who was acting like a child a few moments ago," Gin suddenly laughed.

"Child?" the temperature suddenly dropped. "Tell me. What isn't logical about making the pole smaller? It wasn't as if I did it out of malice or anything."

"Actually, you probably did," Isshin muttered, only to find himself hit over the head with the part that had been broken off.

"_That_ was done in malice!" Toshiro snapped. "Don't ever confuse the two!"

"Why don't we just start fishing?" Gin suddenly asked, casting his line and glancing away.

**M**

After a couple of hours, Toshiro was bored out of his mind. He hadn't wanted to go fishing in the first place. However, he had been dragged along. Thus he wrapped his legs and arms around the pole, due to the fact that absolutely no fish were biting, unless you counted the minnows that Gin had managed to catch that were only a couple of inches in length.

Thus when the tug came on his rod, he found himself startled awake, and Isshin and Gin both had to make a grab for the boy, only to miss, and Toshiro found himself in the water, soaking wet. Isshin and Gin then grabbed the back of his uniform and held on. Isshin shook his head. "Well, what are you waiting for, pull it in…"

Toshiro felt the tug and let out a yelp as the two man drug him back to dry land. Then, while Isshin held onto the small boys kimono tie, Gin grabbed onto the pole and began to help Toshiro haul in whatever it was that they were hauling in. Toshiro's eyes went wide as he saw the huge fish, which was nearly as big as he was. His teal eyes narrowed. "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Wasn't that fun Toshiro?" Isshin suddenly asked, both he and Gin having smiles on their faces. "Let's do this again next year!"

"Oh joy…" Toshiro narrowed his eyes, suddenly letting out a small sneeze and coughing.

**M**

Matsumoto for once finished all of the paperwork, excited that Isshin, Gin and Toshiro were having some bonding time. She had planned on going to the bar with the two men afterwards, but it was taking them time to get back, so she was coming to be bored out of her mind. That was until Gin held out a roll of film to her. "Would Ran-chan like to get the pictures developed?"

"Oh!" Matsumoto suddenly reached up, grabbing the film, sitting up. "So…"

Isshin had Toshiro on his back, fast asleep, a huge fish hanging from one hand. "The kid is the only one who caught anything worth cooking."

"Oi… I wanted to try my minnows," Gin muttered.

"I am sure they would make a nice sandwich… if you don't mind chewing the bone," Isshin shook his head, groaning as he did so.

"I'll cook this for the division's dinner!" Matsumoto smiled big.

"Actually… Matsumoto… could you put Toshiro into his room. I'll cook the fish," Isshin stated, his face turning a little pale.

"I'll help too!" Gin volunteered, his cheeks turning a little bit green.

Matsumoto lifted the small boy from Isshin's shoulders. "I don't get it…"

**M**

Toshiro woke up, smelling something cooking from inside the barracks, and sat up from his futon. He stood up and walked out into the courtyard, stumbling a bit, as he was groggy. The old man of the division, suddenly patted him on the shoulder. "I heard you caught a big fish Shiro-kun."

Toshiro blinked a couple times, bowing to the old man. "I don't quite remember… and happy father's day to you."

The old man chuckled at this. "Normally you aren't very open to saying things to people, are you?"

Toshiro watched as he wandered off, before he headed towards the smell, receiving a few more compliments on his catch, confusing him. He walked over to where the fish was cooking, making a face at Gin's odd outfit, a chef's outfit. "Are you helping Matsumoto, or Isshin taicho?"

"Do you really think that we would let Matsumoto cook anything but boiled rice?" Isshin suddenly spoke up.

"Excuse me?" a female voice came from behind him.

"Oh, oh…" Isshin suddenly took off running, Matsumoto hot on his tail.

"Go Ran-chan!" Gin called out.

"Agreed," Toshiro commented, shaking his head in disbelief.

**M**

Time passed, and things changed. However, even though Isshin-san was gone, Gin decided to keep up the old father's day event that they had started, much to Toshiro's irritation. While Matsumoto still didn't know why they had started doing this, she felt that her current taicho getting out and doing things was a very good thing in all regards.

One thing that changed though was that Rangiku refused to do the paperwork, which made it harder to get the small taicho out of the office. However, the division looked forward to the possibility of getting fish to make for dinner. Matsumoto was outside sitting on one of the benches in the division courtyard, enjoying the sunlight.

"We're back Matsumoto!" Gin cheered, waving his hand at her.

"Oi… so who caught the big fish this time?" Matsumoto suddenly asked.

"Who do you think?" Toshiro muttered, wringing his wet clothing, the shortened fishing pole under his arm, the rod having been wrapped with a ribbon the same color as his sword so that it would have a nice grip, a gift from Ukitake taicho after it had come back to him broken.

"Ehh… well all the pictures have you holding the fish, but I would think you would be a lot less grumpy about it," the woman muttered.

"Not his fault Ran-chan," Gin smirked. "The fish tries to catch mini taicho too… so he always gets soaked before we're through. And he says that one big fish is good enough."

"And what did you catch Gin?" Matsumoto asked.

"Minnows!" the man smiled. "I caught more then I did last year!"

"That's… nice," Matsumoto hugged her childhood friend, who could be… odd at times, then saw them in a plastic tub this time. "Umm… Gin…"

"I am going to try and raise them," Gin muttered. "If I get them big enough… I can put them into Byakuya's koi pond. Maybe they'll eat all of them."

"Gin!" Matsumoto protested, completely shocked.

"Don't…" Toshiro piped up. "I already had to apologize multiple times for you trying to fish in his koi ponds. We're lucky he didn't kill us."

"Rukia-chan thought it was funny and wanted to join us…" Gin sighed.

"With her Chappy bobber… I know," Toshiro sighed. "Maybe you can stick her hand into the fish when you decide to degut the thing instead of mine…"

"But your face is so funny!" Gin smirked, causing the small taicho to roll his eyes.

"Let's just cook the stupid fish…" Toshiro muttered. "And no… you're doing _that _part all by yourself…"

**M**

Meanwhile, in the living world, a nine year old Ichigo sat on the dock, becoming more and more bored with everything that was going on. "And why exactly are we doing this again?"

"Because it is father's day," Yuzu protested.

"We never catch anything…" Ichigo sighed.

"I am going to catch something," a very small voice piped up. Ichigo turned to glare at Karin, who was five years old and had been given her own fishing pole this year.

"As if someone as little as you could catch anything," Ichigo muttered. "And this has always been a father son event…"

"Oi… Ichigo… be nice to your sisters!" Isshin called out, his bobber this time a wooden moose head. "Mum isn't around anymore, and we started this when you turned five, so they are old enough!"

"Uhh…huh…" Ichigo muttered. "I never wanted to go."

Suddenly, Karin suddenly went flying off the deck into the water. Yuzu called out pointing. "Daddy… the fishes are trying to eat Karin-chan."

"That would be nice… one less annoyance," Ichigo mumbled, only to have his head hit from behind by his father as the man dove in. Suddenly, he appeared with Karin… and a huge fish.

"Look… I caught a big one! Can we barbeque it!"

"Ichigo gets to gut it as he didn't catch any!" Isshin suddenly blurted out, causing the eldest Kurosaki child to groan.

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_Author's note – This is a rather late Father's Day fanfic, as I tend to work on the weekends. This is a parallel fanfic to Dried Persimmon Chocolates, which would be a Mother's Day fanfic._

06/20/11 _- I went through and did a little editing._


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